The club was established in 1933 as a replacement for the bankrupt
Frankford Yellow Jackets
after a syndicate led by future NFL commissioner Bert Bell purchased the rights to a Philadelphia
franchise from the league. The Eagles were named after the Blue Eagle, a symbol used for the New Deal stimulus programs initiated during the
Great
Depression.

Franchise history

1931–1960

Half-way through the 1931 season, in
the NFL, the Frankford Yellow
Jackets went bankrupt and ceased operations. After more than a
year of searching for a suitable replacement, the NFL awarded the
dormant franchise to a syndicate headed by Bert Bell and Lud Wray, in
exchange for an entry fee of $2,500. Drawing inspiration from the
Blue Eagle insignia of the National Recovery Act — the
centerpiece of President Franklin
D.Roosevelt's New Deal — Bell and Wray named the new franchise
the Philadelphia Eagles. (Neither the Eagles nor the NFL officially
regard the two franchises as the same, citing the afore-mentioned
period of dormancy. Furthermore, almost no Yellow Jackets players
were on the Eagles' first roster). The Eagles, along with the
Pittsburgh Steelers and the
defunct Cincinnati Reds,
joined the NFL as expansion
teams.

In 1940,
the Eagles moved to Shibe
Park and played their home games at the stadium through
1957, except for the 1941 season, which was played at Municipal
Stadium, where they had played from 1936 to 1939.(Shibe
Park was re-named Connie Mack Stadium in 1953.)

To accommodate football at Shibe Park during the
winter, management set up stands in right field, parallel to
Twentieth Street.

Some twenty feet high, these "east stands" had
twenty-two rows of seats.

The goalposts stood along the first base line and in
left field.

The uncovered east stands enlarged capacity of Shibe
Park to over thirty-nine thousand, but the Eagles rarely drew more
than twenty-five to thirty thousand.

The Eagles struggled over the course of their first decade,
enduring repeated losing seasons. In 1943, when manpower shortages
stemming from World War II made it
impossible to fill the roster, the team merged with the Pittsburgh
Steelers forming the "Phil-Pitt Eagles" and were known as the
"Steagles." (The merger, never intended as
a permanent arrangement, was dissolved at the end of the 1943 season.) By the late 1940s, head coach
Earle "Greasy" Neale and running back
Steve Van Buren led the team to
three consecutive NFL Championship Games, winning two of them in
1948 and 1949. Those two championships mark the
Eagles as the only NFL team ever to win back-to-back championships
by shutouts, defeating the Chicago Cardinals, 7–0, in
1948 — in a blizzard —
and the Los Angeles
Rams, 14–0, in 1949.

After the
1957 season, the
Eagles moved from Connie Mack Stadium to Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin
Field would seat over 60,000 for the Eagles, whereas Connie Mack
had a capacity of 39,000. The stadium switched from grass to
AstroTurf in 1969. It was the first NFL
stadium to use artificial turf.

1961–1984

The Eagles had a good 1961 season and then fell on hard times in
1962. Jerry Wolman bought the franchise
in 1963.

In 1969, Leonard Tose bought the Philadelphia Eagles
from Wolman for $16,155,000, then a record for a professional
sports franchise. Tose's first official act was to fire Coach
Joe Kuharich after a disappointing
24-41-1 record during his five year reign. He followed this by
naming former Eagles receiving great Pete
Retzlaff as General Manager and
Jerry Williams as coach.

Vermeil's 1980 team
won their first NFC East title but lost to
Oakland in the Super Bowl. In January 1983, Tose announced
that his daughter, Susan Fletcher, the Eagles' vice president and
legal counsel, would eventually succeed him as primary owner of the
Eagles.

1985–1993

In
1985, Tose was forced to sell the
Eagles to Norman Braman and Ed
Leibowitz, highly successful automobile dealers from Florida, for a
reported $65 million to pay off his more than $25 million in
gambling debts at Atlantic
City casinos.

Philadelphia football struggled through the Marion Campbell years of the mid-1980s and
was marked by a malaise in fan participation. In 1986, the arrival of head coach Buddy Ryan and his fiery attitude rejuvenated
team performance and ignited the fan base, but the Eagles failed to
win a playoff game during Ryan's tenure. Ryan was fired on January
7, 1991 after an upset home playoff loss to the Redskins. Offensive
coordinator Rich Kotite was promoted to
head coach three days later. Though Kotite did lead the Eagles to
one playoff victory against the New
Orleans Saints during the 1992 season, his contract was not
renewed after a disastrous 1994 season in which the Eagles went
7-9, losing their last seven games after starting the season 7-2.
From 1988 to 1996, the Eagles qualified for the playoffs during 6
out of those 9 seasons, but they won the NFC East only once, in
1988. Among the team's offensive
stars during that period were quarterback Randall Cunningham, tight end Keith Jackson, and running back
Herschel Walker. But the "Gang
Green" defense is what defined the team, led by Reggie White, Jerome
Brown, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Wes
Hopkins, Mike Golic, Byron Evans, Eric
Allen, and Andre Waters.

Lurie era (1994–present)

Jeffrey Lurie bought the Eagles on May
6, 1994 from then owner Norman Braman for an estimated $185
million. The club is now estimated to be the 5th most valuable NFL
franchise, worth $1.024 billion, as valuated in 2006 by Forbes. In
1999, the Eagles hired head coach
Andy Reid and drafted quarterback Donovan McNabb. From that time on the team
continually improved, returning to the playoffs in 2000, then
succeeding in winning the NFC East and playing in four consecutive
conference championship games between 2001 and 2004. After losing
the conference championship in 2001
to the St. Louis Rams, in
2002 to the eventual Super Bowl
Champions Tampa Bay
Buccaneers and in 2003 to the
Carolina Panthers, the
Eagles advanced to the Super Bowl in 2004, Super Bowl
XXXIX, where they lost to the New England Patriots,
24–21. In 2006, the team earned its
fifth NFC East title under Coach Reid and in 2008, the team won their 500th game. On
January 11, 2009 the team defeated the defending Super Bowl
Champions and the 2008 NFC East champion New York Giants 23–11 en route
to their 5th NFC Championship Game in 8 years and 5th in the 10
years the Eagles have been coached by Andy Reid. In the 2008 NFC
Championship Game, the Eagles lost to the Arizona Cardinals by a score
of 32–25.On August 13, 2009 the Eagles signed QB Michael Vick.

For several decades, the Eagles' colors were Kelly green, silver, and white. Since the 1950s, the club's helmets
have featured eagle wings, originally silver on a Kelly green
helmet. In 1969, the team wore two helmet versions: Kelly green
with white wings in road games, and white with Kelly green wings at
home. From 1970 to 1973, they wore the white helmets with Kelly
green wings exclusively before switching back to Kelly green
helmets with silver wings. By 1974 the silver wings took on a white
outline, and this style on a Kelly green helmet became standard for
over two decades. In 1969, the team introduced a stylized logo
featuring an eagle carrying a football in its claws. This logo was
redrawn several years later to be made more realistic.

However, both the logo and uniforms were radically altered in 1996.
The primary Kelly green color was changed to a darker shade,
officially described as "midnight green"; silver was practically
abandoned, as uniform pants moved to either white or the
aforementioned midnight green; and the traditional helmet wings
were changed to a primarily white color, with silver and black
accents. The team's logo combination—the stylized eagle and club
name lettering—also changed in 1996, with the eagle itself limited
to a white (bald eagle) head, drawn in a less realistic, more
cartoon-based style, and the lettering changing from calligraphic
to block letters.

Since the 1996 alterations, the team has made only minor
alterations, mostly relating to jersey/pant combinations worn
during specific games. For example, in 1997, against the San Francisco 49ers, the
team wore midnight green jerseys and pants for the first of only 2
occasions in team history. The second occasion was the final
regular season game at Veterans Stadium, a win over the
division-rival Washington Redskins. And in
the first two games of the 2003 season (both home losses to
Tampa Bay and
New England), the
Eagles wore white jerseys with white pants. The white jerseys along
with white pants are worn during preseason games, since 2003.
However, in every regular season game since the New England loss,
when the team has worn the white jersey they have paired it with
green pants. The Eagles though did wear the white jerseys with
white pants in one regular season game on the road against the
Green Bay Packers on
September 9, 2007. That is the last time the Eagles wore the white
jerseys and white pants together in the regular season.

The 2003 season also saw the first (though only subtle) change to
the 1996-style uniform. On both white and green jerseys, black
shadows and silver trim were added to both the green and white
numbering. The stripe on the pants changed from black-green-black
to black-silver-green on the white pants, and from a solid black
stripe to one stripe of black, another of silver, with one small
white stripe in between for the midnight green pants. The 2003
season also saw the team debut black alternate jerseys, with a
green (instead of black) shadow on white numbers, and silver trim.
These black jerseys have been worn for two selected home games each
season (usually the first home game after BYE week and season
finale). In the 2003 and 2004 regular-season home finales, the team
wore the green road pants with the black alternate jerseys, but
lost each game. Since then, the Eagles have only worn the black
jerseys with the white pants. However, the Eagles did not wear the
alternate black jersey during the 2007 season, but the black
jerseys with white pants re-appeared for the 2008 Thanksgiving
night game against the Arizona Cardinals. The black
jerseys were most recently used in a November 29, 2009 game against
the Washington Redskins. The team also started wearing black shoes
exclusively in 2004.

To celebrate the team's 75th anniversary, the 2007 uniforms
featured a 75th-season logo patch on the left shoulder. In
addition, the team wore "throwback" jerseys in a 2007 game against
the Detroit Lions. The yellow and blue
jerseys, the same colors found on Philadelphia's city flag, are
based on those worn by the Philadelphia Eagles in the team's
inaugural season, and were the same colors used by the former
Frankford Yellowjackets
franchise prior to their suspension of operations in 1931. The
Eagles beat Detroit, 56-21.

The Philadelphia Eagles wear their white jerseys at home for
preseason games and daytime games in the first half of the regular
season from September to mid October when the temperature is
warmer. In night contests in the first half of the regular season,
the Eagles do not need to wear white at home since the temperature
is cooler. However, there have been exceptions, such as the home
opener against the Washington Redskins in 2007 and the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers in 2003 that were played at night. Since moving to
Lincoln Financial Field in 2003, the Eagles have worn white at home
for at least their home opener. In late October the Eagles start to
wear their colors at home. Although they may do it sooner even in
early-season games in the daytime, such as when they wore
yellow-and-blue throwback jerseys against the Detroit Lions in 2007 or alternate black
jerseys against the Oakland Raiders
in 2005, with both of those instances being in September. On one
occasion the Eagles wore their white jerseys at home after October.
They wore white at home against the Dallas Cowboys on November 4, 2007, to make
the Cowboys wear their (rarely worn) road blue jerseys.

Fight song

Fly, Eagles Fly, on The Road to Victory!

Fight, Eagles, Fight, Score a Touchdown 1-2-3!

Hit 'em low, hit 'em high,

And watch our Eagles fly!

Fly, Eagles fly, On The Road to Victory!

E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!

The Eagles fight song is heard after every Eagles touchdown at home
and before the team is introduced prior to kickoff.

Eagles fans

Although the methodology may vary, studies that attempt to rank the
32 fan bases in the NFL consistently place
Eagles fans among the best in the league, noting their "unmatched
fervor."

The American City
Business Journals, which conducts a regular study to determine
the most loyal fans in the NFL, evaluates fans based primarily on
attendance-related factors, and ranked Eagles fans third in both
1999 and 2006. The 2006 study called the fans "incredibly loyal,"
noting that they filled 99.8 percent of the seats in the stadium
over the previous decade. Forbes placed the
Eagles fans first in its 2008 survey, which was based on the
correlation between team performance and fan attendance. ESPN.com placed Eagles fans fourth in the league in
its 2008 survey, citing the connection between the team's
performance and the mood of the city.

The studies note that — win or lose — Eagles fans can be counted on
to pack their stadium. As of August 2008, the team had sold out 71
consecutive games, and 70,000 were on the team's waiting list for
season tickets. Despite finishing with a 6-10 record in the
2005-2006 season, the Eagles ranked second in the NFL in
merchandise sales, and single-game tickets for the next season were
sold out minutes after phone and Internet lines opened.

While praising their loyalty, the Forbes study, also calls the
team's fans "famously cruel," noting their proclivity for picking
fights and harassing fans of visiting teams. Some local media have
criticized portions of the fan base, calling them "aggressive,
drunken louts with a penchant for harassing women."

Some Eagles fans have been involved in a series of high-profile
incidents of rowdy behavior, including:

"all-out debauchery" at the November 10, 1997, game against the
San Francisco 49ers, featuring a fan with a flare gun, a large
brawl on an upper level, and an Eagles fan being mauled because his
friend was wearing a New York Giants
jacket; all leading to six arrests and 269 ejections from the
stadium, as well as a ban on beer sales for the remainder of the
season and the introduction of the famous "Eagles Court" in the
stadium's basement;

booing the Easter Bunny;

pelting Santa Claus with snowballs; and

cheering after watching Cowboys wide
receiverMichael Irvin suffer a
career-ending injury that required him to be removed from the field
in an ambulance.

Police say
that rowdy behavior has decreased since the Eagles moved to
Lincoln
Financial Field in 2003. Increased costs have priced out
some of the problem fans and increased security measures have given
stadium staff the ability to address unruliness more quickly,
though ESPN still advises fans of opposing teams to "tread lightly"
when visiting Lincoln Financial Field.

Charitable activity

Eagles Fly for Leukemia, Ronald McDonald Houses

In 1971, Kim Hill, the daughter of Eagles tight end Fred Hill, was diagnosed with leukemia. As Hill and his family dealt with this
devastating blow, his teammates and owner Leonard Tose pledged
their emotional support.

As Fred continued to research Kim's leukemia, the support of
Leonard Tose and the Eagles continued to inspire him. The Eagles
held fund-raising dinners, the team made individual contributions,
and Fred and Kim continued to bravely battle this disease.

After Kim's successful treatment, Fred realized how powerful the
spirit of solidarity that his teammates displayed truly was. Fred
became committed to helping other families battle pediatric
cancers. From helping them identify resources, to assisting
financially, Fred and his teammates continued their fight against
childhood cancers. In 1972, Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose
officially recognized Eagles Fly for Leukemia as the official
philanthropy of the Philadelphia Eagles Football Club.

The spirit of the Eagles and Leonard Tose led to the establishment
of the first Ronald McDonald
House, a place for families to find shelter when their children
are sick. Now, over 200 Ronald McDonald houses shelter thousands of
families around the world.

The spirit continued, and over the last 30 years Eagles Fly for
Leukemia has raised over $10 million towards pediatric cancer
research and family support.

In 1991, Eagles Fly for Leukemia soared higher and became
established as a free-standing non-profit organization, outside of
the Eagles Football Club. However, the spirit remains, with the
Eagles continuing to support and encourage Eagles Fly for Leukemia
initiatives.

Eagles Youth Partnership

In 1995, in an effort to better give back to the community, Eagles
Youth Partnership (EYP) was formed as a 501 public charity in the emerging field of sports
philanthropy.

Eagles Youth Partnership (EYP) serves over 50,000 low income
children in the Greater Philadelphia region every year via two
mobile units, the Eagles Eye
Mobile, which gives eye examinations, and the Eagles Book
Mobile, a literacy program. EYP is also known for annual playground
builds in underserved neighborhoods, an annual chess tournament,
and a variety of other programs and events.

The Philadelphia Eagles Football Club is the EYP's largest funder.
The Eagles also donate free office space, staff support and other
resources in support of the organization. Corporate, foundation and
individual donors join to support Eagles Youth Partnership's
efforts.

Bednarik, Bell, Pihos, Van Buren, McDonald, White and broadcaster
Bill Campbell have all been inducted into the Philadelphia Sports
Hall of Fame.

75th anniversary team

Coaches of note

Current staff

Radio and television

Beginning with the 2008 season, Eagles games will now be
broadcasted on both 94.1 WYSP-FM and Sports Radio 610 WIP-AM, as both stations are owned
and operated by CBS Radio. Merrill Reese, who joined the Eagles in the
mid-1970s, is the play-by-play announcer, and former Eagles wide
receiver Mike Quick is the color analyst.
Former Eagles linebacker Bill Bergey is
among several Eagles post-game commentators on WYSP.